Stocks jump as retail sales rebound more than expected in October

Associated Press photoBen Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, speaks at a meeting of The Economic Club of New York, Monday. He said that the Fed will continue to hold interest rates at record low levels.NEW YORK – Investors kept the stock market’s upward momentum going Monday, sending shares sharply higher as the dollar extended its slide and after retail sales rebounded more than expected in October.
Major stock indexes rose more than 1 percent to new 13-month highs, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which jumped 136 points. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed above the 1,100 mark for the first time in more than a year.
The weaker dollar lifted gold to a new record and pumped up prices of other commodities, including oil. That, in turn, helped shares of energy and materials companies.
Stocks added to their gains after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reaffirmed in a midday speech that the central bank would hold interest rates at record-low levels for an “extended period” and that he didn’t see signs that the money being pumped into the economy by the government was creating speculative bubbles. Bond prices jumped after Bernanke said inflation appeared contained.
Some analysts have cautioned that the surge in stocks, which has been hastened by a sliding dollar, might not be justified by the still struggling economy. In fact, they say some investors might misread the big advance in stocks as a sign that the economy is stronger than it actually is.
The market’s own dynamics also fed some of the day’s gains.
Dan Deming, a trader with Stutland Equities, said the S&P 500’s move above 1,100 gave some investors a shot of confidence and led to short-covering, which tends to amplify gains in the market. Short-covering occurs when investors have to buy stock after having earlier sold borrowed shares in a bet they would fall.
“We’re breaking through the 1,100 mark, which is psychologically significant, and the market is seeing a little pop from that,” Deming said.
Stocks began rising from the start after the Commerce Department said retail sales rose 1.4 percent in October, easily surpassing the 0.8 percent increase forecast by economists polled by Thomson Reuters. It was a sharp rebound following the 2.3 percent drop in September. Excluding the gain from autos, however, sales rose just 0.2 percent, half of what economists predicted.
Jamie Cox, a managing partner at Harris Financial Group, said the sales growth was a good sign heading into the holiday shopping season, especially because the data were not affected by factors such as sales-tax holidays and government stimulus programs that had been present in the preceding months.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow rose 136.49, or 1.3 percent, to 10,406.96 after rising nearly 164 points.
The broader S&P 500 index rose 15.82, or 1.5 percent, to 1,109.30. It traded above 1,100 in mid-October but hasn’t closed above that benchmark since October last year. The S&P 500 index first finished above 1,100 more than a decade ago, in March 1998.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 29.97, or 1.4 percent, to 2,197.85.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies advanced 16.59, or 2.8 percent, to 602.87.